Modbook Pro Is the Mac Tablet Apple Chose Not to Build

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Years ago, before the iPad even existed, there existed an unofficial Apple tablet called the Modbook that was essentially a MacBook with its keyboard gutted and a touchscreen replacement for stylus input. For reasons unknown, the Modbook returns, but this time it's more "Pro."

Given the success of the iPad and MacBook Air, common sense would say that the Modbook Pro has no reason to exist, but Modbook would like to tell you otherwise.

Aimed at graphic designers, the Modbook Pro is basically just one of the new 13.3-inch MacBook Pro notebooks with a Wacom touchscreen digitizer slapped on top to provide "512 levels of pen pressure sensitivity." Naturally, because it is a gutted MacBook Pro, it runs OS X Lion. And unfortunately, because it's a converted Pro, it comes with only a 1,280x800 resolution display, a farcry from the iPad 3's 2,048x1,536 resolution Retina display.

Alongside the MagSafe power port, the Modbook Pro's base system has one Gigabit Ethernet port, one FireWire® 800 port, one USB 3.0 port, one Thunderbolt™ port, one SDXC card slot and one audio line in/out.

Additionally, the stylus will also be compatible with Windows 7 via Bootcamp. We're not sure why any regular folk would pick up one of these over an iPad, Microsoft Surface or Ultrabook, but hey, if there's a market for an OS X tablet, there's a market. Clearly the old Modbook sold enough for the company to consider making another.

Pricing for the Modbook Pro is TBA with a release schedule for this fall. Any takers?